Varieties of Religious Experience, a Study in Human Nature

by William James

To come now to a little closer quarters with their creed. The fundamental pillar on which it rests is nothing more than the general basis of all religious experience, the fact that man has a dual nature, and is connected with two spheres of thought, a shallower and a profounder sphere, in either of which he may learn to live more habitually. The shallower and lower sphere is that of the fleshly sensations, instincts, and desires, of egotism, doubt, and the lower personal interests. But whereas Christian theology has always considered FROWARDNESS to be the essential vice of this part of human nature, the mind-curers say that the mark of the beast in it is FEAR; and this is what gives such an entirely new religious turn to their persuasion.